Flying-machine.



' w. P.'THOMPSON.

FLYING MACHINE. APPLICATION FILED NOV. i9, I907- Patentd Aug. 1,1916.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 1 v H6210. v

w. P. THOMPS0N.

FLYING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 29, 1907- I Patented Aug. 1, 1916.

ZfW/M w. PJHOMPSON.

FLYING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 29, 1907.

Patented Aug. 1, 1916.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

J ILLIAM 1 THOMPSON, or LIvERPoo'L, ENGLAND.

FLYING-MACHIN E.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 1, 1916.

Application filed November 29,1907. Serial No. 404,321.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILL AM PHILLIPS THOMPSON, a subject of the King of Great Britain, residing at Liverpool, in the county of Lancaster, in the Kingdom of England, civil en ineer, have invented certain new and use 111 Improvements in or Appertaining to Flying-Machines, for which application has been made in Great Britain No. 27312, dated November 30, 1906.

This invention has for its object a flying machine that will be automatically balanced to a very great extent by the horizontal displacement of the car. It can be made of very different sizes, and can have a greater or lesser number of planes or of wings than those shown, and either the wings or the screw in some instances be altogether dispensed with, but-I prefer to have both.

Figure 1 shows an end view of my device with the wings omitted. Fig. 2, a plan of my machine with the car and the lines connecting it with the superstruzture omitted. Fig. 3 is a side elevation of a machine without wings. Fig. 4 shows an ele vation of part of the platform of the car showing the guiding device. A precisely similar device is used for moving the car ciently narrow to be drawn on the wheels through a narrow street or alley. The girders A in large machines are preferably nearly perpendicular.

D is a screw made to propel the machine. E is the engine for driving the screw and also for driving the mechanism of the wings.

This engine is supported on a small platform suspended from the two girders by the bars F, Fig. 2. At intervals along the top member of each girder and sometimes along each bottom member and even at intermediate points I arrange light transverse aeroplanes G and wings G W. The midrib of these aeroplanes can be made of celluloid or the like, or of aluminium tube or even of bambooor hollow wood built up or other like construction.

A section of my most improved design of'aeroplane or wing is shown in'Fig. 6 in which G is the wing shaft or tube, H a

steel clamp, J steel, wood or other feathers on ;which canvas is stretched, fastened by 'said steel clamp to the tube, and J a furlaterally as shown by handle M in Fig.

1. Fig. 5 a plan View of same, Fig. 6 a section of an aeroplane when formed on a large scale, having an aluminium tube G and steel orother like feat-hers J. Fig. 7 an enlarged transverse section of the central part of the superstructure showing the cam and springs which work the wings. Fig. 8 the same. paid? as Fig. 7, taken at right angles thereto? Fig. 9 a transverse section of the wing socket showing the stop. Fig. 10 a section of a beetles wing case.

In the figures A-Aare two girders. These are a little out of the perpendicular as shown, but they can be placed perpendicular ther canvas top. These aeroplanes can be perfectly horizontalyand parallel with the top of the girder, but I prefer them to be slightly curved as shown, and set at an angle of a few degrees with the girder and in pairs attached to each other by means of a hinge. In place of some of these aeroplanes and preferably alternating with them I use pairs of wings G W each pivoted by a universal joint on the girder as shown in Fig. 2, the universal joint being shown in Fig. 7, G. Each wing has a sudden beat downward, and a slow beat upward by means of the mechanism hereafter explained. The wings are arranged to freely oscillate on their axes through a short distance so that the moment the extension of the main blade of the wing beyond the girder is pressed down, the wing shall in if desired. 'They are spaced apart below by bars B pivoted at each end to the base part of girders 'A- A and hook bars B pivoted on the righthand side to girder A, and hooked on to girder A. i The top bar can consequently be, hooked or unhooked when if the junctions between the pairs of aeroplanes at C, Fig. 1, be hinged, the aeroplanes can be brought up into a nearly vertical position, and thus the machine be suflicross section slope downward and forward until stopped by a stop but when thewings are forced upward, the main shaft of the wing] will rotate asfar as the stop will allow and thus the wing during its entire upward stroke will be pointing upward and forward. v

In' the cross section shown in Fig. 9, G is a feather attached firmly to the tube of the wing shaft,G* a hiatus in the bearing. By

are very desirable, and the strains are thus reduced to a minimum as the actuating mechanism of the wings can be evenly spaced around the circle of the main. shaft. Further, the wings are supplied with springs, which when'the wing is rising upward, are; compressed or expanded, and these springs .when released produce the downward stroke. The mechanism for do ing this is shown in Figs. 7 and 8. in these G is the wing shaft, G ajoint, F a link, and F are two plates linked to links F. F is a roller rotating in hearings in these two links F The -mode of action of this part is as follows ;-The roller F being pressed down by the cam E on the shaft E to the point shown, the wing is raised for a beat. As the shaft revolves therefore the roller is released, the springs suddenly draw up the links F and thus forcibly and suddenly pull up the wing shaft ends causing a downward beat of the wings. anced pressure on the feathers of the wing causes the wing shaft to turn in its bearings as far as the stop will allow, and the wing strikes downward and backward with its feathers pointing upward and backward about 35 to 45 degrees. The shaft continues to turn and pulls the wing up, the feathers sink till they are about four de-' grees below the horizontalwhen they are stopped by the stop. The wing nowbecomes an aeroplane, slowly rising till the springs are again liberated. By spacing the gear cams E at even angular distances around the engine shaft the strain caused by the springs is evenly distributed. lit is obvious that in place of the spring operating the downward beat, the gearing couldbe arranged so that the engine would operate the beat and the spring bring the wing slowly back. From each end of the main girder A ll suspend awire, cord, rope or chain K, andfrom intermediate points other like lines K K etc. All these lines pass over a drum or drums L on a transverse shaft in the lower carriage hereafter described and two small subsidiary drums L L. -They are preferably riveted or fastened in the center to the drums L or have several laps around 1t, and these drums L are propontloned so that there shall be the" same pull on all the wires or ropes for all positions of the drums. 0n the shaft of these drums is a worm wheel and on a hand wheel shaft M the worm, so that the operator Sitting The unbalincense the carriage can rot-ate these drums. Further, from one or more of the aeroplanes on each side and from the girders ll may bring wires TU from central points or. intermediate points and from near the ends to rollers or reels V or other points of attachment on the sides or the bottom of the carriage with any desired mechanism for tightening them up or slackening them ofi' such as a longitudinal'shaft and drum like the transverse ones described above. Thus the weight of. the carriage is distributed overall the aeroplanes direct or through the girders, and as it is supported from both sides, the entire carriage tends to keep the aeroplanes on the same level,- for if the main 7 few degrees from the horizontal in an upward and forward direction, and the whole concave downward, but the fastenings to'the girders are preferably adjusted so that with light loads and quick speeds, the aeroplanes can be fixed with their cross sectional planes more nearly parallel with the girders in cross section, than with slow speeds and heavier loads;

i Any ordinary device for changing the angle will be used. I have therefore not shown any special one. The -wings are substan tially of the cross section shown in Fig. 6,

except that the fine rear end is pliable and I elastic, and consequently may bend up or benddown according as the wing is descending or ascending.

1 The engine and shaft when there is only a screw propeller must'be kept as nearly as possible in the line of the center of resist ance of the entire machine to -forward travel, but where there are wings also the center of this shaft is preferably placed below the center'of resistance.

N-is a tail rudder for guiding the machine, worked by the handle 0. This handle is shown diagrammatically attached to the rudder, but in practice it will probably be found preferable to have it alongside the worm wheel M as in an ordinary automobile.

P is a carriage supported by the usual side of this carriage are two beams S carrying at their top a vertical slotted guide T in which works a pin firmly fixed to the lower member of the main girder'A. The

upper or flotation structure can thus rise spring devices Q, on four wheels R. At each ing the downwardstroke the wings press the air backward, but in the upward stroke they rise like aeroplanes owing to their having an upward forward slope, in fact they act on what I believe to/be the principle of a birds wing. These wings, or wings and a screw, or a screw alone, whichever be used,

when put in position cause the whole device to run along the ground on the wheels R until the superstructure rises. The motor still propels the carriage forward which if desirable can be provided with aself propelling mechanism (but this will probably lower.

rarely be required) until the carriage itself rises. In flight,'if a descending course be desired, the carriage is swung forward 011 the longitudinal ropes or chains K K, etc., while if it be desired to rise, the carriage is brought more to the rear in each case by turning the handle M. If it be desirable to have a lateral movement the rudder is used,

though it would be possible to arrange longitudinal rollers and a similar device to M, in which case steering could be effected by moving the carriage laterally on the lateralwires or the like, the principle of balancing by the carriage being that the latter carrying a large amount of weight is suspended from four points, front, rear and on each side, and so must keep all these ropes taut, and this it can only do when the flying machine is in the exact plane due to the position of the carriage on the ropes for the time being, for of course if the plane of the upper superstructure becomes oblique, a greater strain is put on the ropes from the higher point, and less on those from the It will be seen therefore that the more weight is placed on the carriage and the deeper the carriage is below the superstructure, the more stable and balanced the machine will be, but as it is desirable that the screw should be tolerably near the plane of the aeroplanes and yet should be in the by gear chains. In actual starting the upperbody rests on the lower carriage, and on the bottoms of the guides T all the wires being somewhat slack. The wings if used are thus high enough to be clear of hitting the ground.

Although I have described the carriage as connected to the superstructure only by ropes or wires, it is obvious that this is not .absolutely necessary so long as the center of gravity of the carriage is much below the center of gravity of the superstructure and can be moved horizontally relative to the superstructure, and provided the carriage raises the superstructure high enough for the wings not to be impeded by striking the ground in starting flight. The carriage should be widely enough based so that there will be no fear of the structure toppling over when at rest or when starting or stopping. The aeroplanes when at all in use will assist also in steadying the machine, and when the machine is being drawn along the road, and the bars B .are unhooked, and

the wings placed vertical, the girders can be drawn toward each other, and this itselfwill as it were furl the wings so that it will resemble those of a butterfly when at rest. Any mechanism such as a rope wound around both members .and twitched tight by a bar can be used for drawing-the members near together. 2

I claim as my inventioii;

1. The combination'i-na flyingmachine of an upper framework, a plurality of narrow transverse aeroplanes fixed thereto extending out at right angles tothe axis on each side, and at least three times-their own width apart from each other,"propelling mechanism for driving the upper structure through the air, a sub-structure, means for suspending the latter flexiblyl,from theupper structure, distance pieces between the two structures, and means ,fo altering the angle of suspension in any dir ction, whereby the inclination of the aeroplanes is simultaneously altered in reference to the substructure.

2. In a flying machine, the combination of a superstructure'formed of two normally substantially parallel girders hinged together at the bottom with disconne'ctible means for holding them together at the top, a plurality of long narrow transverse aeroplanes projecting across them, and attached thereto, and hinged at the longitudinal center line of the machine, whereby when the two girders are disconnected at the top and brought nearly together, the aeroplanes stand up substantially vertical like the wings of a butterfly when it has alighted.

3. In a flying machine, the combination of two girders hinged at the bottom and braced together by removable means at the top, a series of long narrow aeroplanes on each side fixed rigidly to the respective girder and spaced widely apart, whereby by turning'each girder on its axis, its respective aeroplanes can be moved from a more or less horizontal to a more or less vertical position.

4:. In a flying machine, the combination of two girders hinged together at the bottom and braced together at the top, asseries of pairs of long narrow aeroplanes spaced .av'idely apart and crossing these girders at right angles and'attached to each of them,

Wings pivoted on the girders at intervals between the aeroplane and means for flapping these wings for the purpose of driving the flying machine forward in the direction of the joint. axes of the-girders. V

5. In a flying machine, a longitudinal framework consisting of two girders hinged at the bottom, and adjustable distance pieces at the top, a series of aeroplanes fixed thereto, a propeller, a main shaft with drivinggear in the girder, and a car suspended from the aeroplanes'and girder.

6.111 aflying machine,

verse narrow aeroplanes rigidly attached to said girders and wings pivoted on said chronously for slowly raising and suddenlyreleasing them for the down-stroke, springs for causing the return, stroke, and means for allowing the wings united angular rotative movement.

8. The combination of a longitudinal framework, wings at intervals pivoted to the framework extending out laterally, an engine, a mainshaft driven by that engine,

a separate variable motion device drivenpositively by said shaft, connected with each pair of wings, whereby the wings can be slowly drawn back and then rapidly 'fla ed, and means for allowing the, wings a limited angular rotary movement.

9. In a flying machine, the combination of a longitudinal girder framework, a series.

ofaeropl-anes fixed thereto, and a series of pairs of wings pivoted on said girder framework and a main shaft in the longitudinal centerline of the framework carrying asep arate positively propelled device for each pair. of wings, whereby these are obliged to work synchronously witheach other, and means for rotating the said shaft.

the combination of two girders braced together with their upper members some distance apart, trans.

meager.

10. The combination of a longitudinal framework formed of two parallel girders braced together, a series of long narrow transverse aeroplanes fixed thereto, and of pairs of wings pivoted on said girders and free to move axially within certain limits, and more than their own width apart from any other plane whereby the air compressed by one wing can expand before meeting another plane, a longitudinal rotating shaft and means on that shaft for giving a beating motion to those pairs of Wings.

11. The combination of a framework formed of two substantially parallel girders, a series of pairs of aeroplanes, rigidly fixed on the framework, a wheeled car suspended from said framework when at rest, and means for bringing all the aeroplanes into substantially vertical position when at rest, and of rigidly fixing them into the substantially horizontal position when not at rest.

12. In a flying machine, the combination of a girder superstructure, a series of transverse narrow aeroplanes attached thereto, a strut separating the superstructure from the car when at rest, at a transverse line near the center of the superstructure, lines from opposite extremities of the aeroplanes to the car, and lines from the extremities fore and aft of the superstructure to the car, with means for varying the position of the car relative to these lines, whereby the superstructure can rest on the car when not flying, and yet the car be free to be moved relative to the planes by manipulating the lines aforesaid during flight, and during flight the entire weightof the car is carried by said lines, while when at rest, the weight is carried mainly by the strut.

13. In a flying machine, the combination of 'alongitudinal girder framework having a series of narrow transverse aeroplanes fixed 1 thereto at least. three, times their breadth apart, a driving mechanism in approximately the horizontal centerline, a car suspended by flexible means from the superstructure, and carrying a large part of the weight, means for keeping the relatlve dis- -tance of the car' and superstructure practically constant during flight, and also constant. at rest at a slightly lesser distance apart, and means for the machine by changing the position of the car bothclongitudinally and transversely relative to the superstructure.

14:. The combination of long narrow transverse aeroplanes, a girder framework below, to whichsaid aeroplanes are rigidly attached, wings pivoted on "that framework,

an engine, shaft and variable gear on that shaft 'carried'by the framework, giving aslow upward and a sudden downward stroke to the wings, and at the same time a small angular change of position. rotary 'to' their signed my name this 20th day of November, axes and a car below suspended from the 1907, in the presence of two subseribing 1o framework, with means for {noving tllijit car Witnesses. in any direction horizontal y, Where y the 5 inclination of the entire set of Wings and THOMPSON aeroplanes can be simultaneously altered at Witnesses: will. CHARLES LESLIE,

In Witness whereof, I have hereunto I RICHARD W. WILLIAMS. 

